Dear Friends and Neighbors,

 

I hope you have been having a great Minnesota Summer, at the lake, cabin or at many of the town/city festivals that South Eastern Minnesota is famous for.  In this newsletter, I am providing a recap of laws that went into effect this month, and some additional information about the ones you have been hearing about the most, the legalization of marijuana for recreational use and new laws regarding firearms' permit to purchase and transfers. 

Each year, the two most important dates in Legal calendar in Minnesota are July 1 and August 1.  July 1^st is the year that the new budget starts, the one that is usually passed by mid-May when the legislative session ends.  New programs, funding increases and decreases in that budget begin at that point, as do changes in law associated with them.  August 1 is when policy changes go into law.  There are exceptions to these two dates, when the legislature passes a law with immediate effect, or choses to push out the effective date to the future, but generally laws with money attached take effect July 1 and laws that only change policy take effect August 1 of the year in which they are passed. 

 

This session saw extraordinary changes and some of those changes are rolling out this month.  Two of the biggest changes were marijuana legalization and firearms law.  (More about those below.)  Here is a list of the rest of the laws that went into effect on August 1.

 

AGRICULTURE

 

• Fee increases: The Agriculture Department will impose a technology surcharge initially 5% with a minimum $5 fee per transaction on all license and permit transactions for which it charges a fee.

 

• A person working on behalf of an approved medical cannabis manufacturer is permitted to, under certain conditions, apply minimum risk pesticide for growing medical cannabis.

 

• A nonprofit organization or an individual can offer for sale certified nursery stock and be exempt from the requirement to pay certificate fees.

 

BUSINESS AND COMMERCE

 

• Anti-Catalytic converter theft law: The law prohibits the possession of a detached catalytic converter with a few narrow exceptions and provides that individuals found with illegally acquired detached catalytic converters could be charged with up to a felony. The number of catalytic converters possessed, purchased, or acquired by a person within any six-month period may be aggregated and the person charged accordingly. Scrap metal dealers cannot purchase a catalytic converter not attached to a motor vehicle unless the catalytic converter contains identifying markings that can connect it to a vehicle. A court will be required to include the costs of replacing a catalytic converter as a portion of any restitution ordered in a criminal case.

 

CIVIL LAW

• Permitting electronic signatures on wills. A new law allows a will to be witnessed and, where allowed, electronically notarized, and completed.

 

EDUCATION

• Active Shooter Drills in School. Establishes requirements for active shooter drills, including that they be accessible and developmentally appropriate, and that time be provided for teachers to debrief with their students. Schools must provide notice to parents of pending active shooter drills before they are conducted, and a student must not be required to participate. The law requires a school district or charter school conducting an active shooter drill to provide students in middle school and high school at least one hour, or one standard class period, of violence prevention training annually.

 

• Tier 1, 2, and 3 teachers of world languages and culture, performing arts, and visual arts will be exempt from the requirement to hold a bachelor’s degree.

 

• The Online Instruction Act will replace the Online Learning Act. New definitions, regulations, and reporting requirements for all school districts.

 

• Indigenous Peoples Day will replace Columbus Day on a list of holidays that a school district may conduct school, and at least one hour of the school program that day must be devoted to observance of the day.

 

• Charter schools will have to abide by the Education for English Learners Act in the same manner as local districts and will have to make an enrollment preference for Minnesota residents, with admission for these in-state pupils being free.

 

 

ELECTIONS

 

• Under current statute, "expressly advocating" requires communication to clearly identify a candidate and use words or phrases of express advocacy. Effective Aug. 1, 2023, the law expands the definition to include political communication that does not use words or phrases such as “vote” or “vote against,” but “when taken as a whole and with limited reference to external events, such as the proximity to the election, could only be interpreted by a reasonable person as containing advocacy of the election or defeat of one or more clearly identified candidates.”

 

EMPLOYMENT

 

• Warehouse distribution center worker safety.  The new law will require a written description “understandable in plain language and in the language identified by each employee as the primary language of that employee,” each quota they must meet and how it is measured. Potential adverse employment action that could result from failure to meet the quota must also be disclosed. An employer cannot take adverse employment action against an employee failing to meet a quota that has not been disclosed to the employee. Among its other provisions are a prohibition on employers requiring employees to meet quotas that would interfere with compliance of required meal, rest, restroom break (including reasonable travel time), prayer periods, or otherwise prevent compliance with any Occupational Safety and Health Administration workplace safety standard.

 

• General contractors will be held civilly liable for malfeasance committed by their hired subcontractors

 

• Employers will be prohibited from compelling employee attendance at meetings that discuss religious matters, political issues, or arguments against unionization;

 

•  Fines will more than double for failing to post employees’ rights posters in a workplace with willful or repeated violations as high as $156,259 per violation; serious or nonserious violations will max out at $15,625 per violation.

 

• Changes to worker’s compensation law: modifies requirements for when an employer who self-insures for workers comp; clarify the conditions when an employer or insurer may require an injured employee to obtain a second medical opinion on the necessity of a nonemergency surgery; specify acceptable fees a health care provider can charge for producing medical records; and establish timelines for when results of a medical examination of an injured worker must be given to the worker.

 

ENVIRONMENT

• Lands bill becomes law. The Department of Natural Resources and counties received authorization to modify or exchange several land parcels around the state.
• Under the law, application fees may be waived by the Department of Natural Resources in some cases when issuing or releasing an easement. The legislation also clarifies that the DNR can lease land for recreational trails or facilities for a term of 30 years.
• A county may lease tax-forfeited land for up to 25 years rather than 10 under previous law. The consideration amount for a lease is increased from $12,000 to $50,000. Counties may also lease tax-forfeited land for conservation easements.

 

FAMILY

• Codifying provisions of Indian Child Welfare Act in statute. The federal government established the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978 to help end the practice begun in the 1800s of separating Native American children from their families. The Minnesota version was enacted in 1985.  This year federal provisions were brought into state statute including procedures and requirements for child protection, placement, and permanency proceedings.

 

• Another provision sets forth a policy on tribal-state relations by which the state acknowledges federally recognized Indian Tribes as sovereign political entities that cannot be limited by state action.

 

 

HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

• Modifications to substance use disorder treatment. Effective Aug. 1, 2023, a new law will allow the supervised practice of alcohol and drug counseling by former students for 90 days from the former student’s degree conferral date or from the last date of last credit received. This practice will automatically expire after 90 days.
• Amending HIV training requirements in substance use disorder treatment programs, the law will require the Department of Human Services to outline HIV minimum standards training content, instead of providing training. An obsolete date will also be removed.
• Changes to withdrawal management license requirements for withdrawal management programs.
• Changes to substance abuse program reporting requirements.

 

HIGHER EDUCATION

 

• Minnesota’s higher education attainment goal statute — which calls for 70% of Minnesotans aged 25 to 44 to have a postsecondary credential is now to include workforce training credentials. The Department of Labor and Industry will assist in estimating the number of industry-recognized credentials in the state.

 

• Two changes to the state grant program are in the law: To attain eligibility, students must not have been convicted of fraud in attaining Title IV funds, and an institution’s data need only include student enrollment and state and financial aid if it is eligible to receive state financial aid or SELF Loans.

 

• Private colleges that wish to opt out of the state’s Fostering Independence grant program must continue providing benefits to enrolled students currently receiving them.

 

• Tribal colleges will be defined in statute and added to the definition of “school,” and they will be exempt from the requirements of the Private and Out-Of-State Public Postsecondary Education Act. The law also clarifies that schools exempt from that act’s requirements are also exempt from those of the Private Career School Act.

 

• Grant funds will be used to recruit, prepare, and support students currently underrepresented in the state’s concurrent enrollment programs.

 

• Eligibility for mineral research scholarships is altered to remove Mesabi Range Community and Technical College and add University of Minnesota programs at the Duluth campus and Minnesota North College — a cooperative of six community colleges. Allowable grant amounts are also increased and students from Minnesota Economic Development Region 3 are given priority to receive them.

 

MILITARY AND VETERANS AFFAIRS

 

• The Veterans Restorative Justice Act increases access to programs and treatment for veterans with a service-related condition that led or contributed to a conviction for a criminal offense. It helps create post-plea sentencing options to avoid jail time while providing eligible veterans the resources and assistance they need to successfully reintegrate into society. It allows for deferred prosecution if the court finds clear and convincing evidence the defendant suffers from an applicable condition that stems from their service and caused them to commit the offense. Defendants can request an eligibility assessment before a finding of guilt or entering a guilty plea and the court can make its finding based on information in the citation or complaint, and any accompanying police reports. If the court determines a defendant is eligible, and that person is subsequently found or pleads guilty, the court shall defer prosecution.

 

PUBLIC SAFETY

 

• The Minnesota Rehabilitation and Reinvestment Act will require the Department of Corrections to develop a personalized rehabilitation plan for every inmate with at least a year left to serve, including substance abuse treatment programs, sexual offender treatment, medical and mental health services, and vocational, employment and career, educational, and other rehabilitative programs. If an enrollee makes sufficient progress, their sentence could be reduced by up to 17%. Inmates serving life sentences will be ineligible for the program.

 

• Law enforcement agencies prohibited from retaliating against, or penalizing a peace officer who intercedes against or reports another officer’s or employee’s use of excessive force.

 

• Establishing that a financial institution may release certain information to a law enforcement or prosecuting authority that certifies it is investigating an identity theft crime.

 

•  Requiring peace officers responding to emergency calls to carry at least two opiate antagonists (i.e., naloxone, naltrexone) to counteract a narcotic overdose.

 

• Prohibiting peace officers from joining or supporting hate or extremist groups.

 

• Creating a crime of organized retail theft and establishing penalties.

 

• Allowing people who receive government benefits, are homeless, or eligible for legal aid services to retrieve their possessions from an impounded vehicle free of charge.

 

• Expanding the definition of “killed in the line of duty” to include a public safety worker’s death by suicide following a PTSD diagnosis or within 45 days of witnessing a traumatic event such as a mass shooting.

 

• Permitting a person filing a name change after a divorce to go back to their pre-divorce name without a criminal history check.

 

• Expanding the type of public safety workers eligible to be reimbursed for purchasing soft body armor to include firefighters and EMTs.

 

• Strengthening laws prohibiting surreptitious observation or photographing that invades a person’s privacy.

 

• Permitting the prosecutor responsible for the prosecution of an individual convicted of a crime to start a proceeding to lower that person’s sentence.

 

•  Expanding the crime of an assault motivated by bias to include bias against a person due to the person’s gender, gender identity, or gender expression.

 

• Requiring landlords to disclose all non-optional fees in lease agreements; and

 

• limiting the length of probation to five years for most felony offenses and making that change apply retroactively.

 

• A new law creates a new crime of labor trafficking that results in death with a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison and a $40,000 fine. It also creates enhanced penalties for labor trafficking a person over an extended period or when a labor trafficking victim suffers great bodily harm because of the trafficking. This crime could be punished by up to 20 years in prison and a $40,000 fine if the victim is under age 18, labor trafficking occurs over an extended period, or the victim suffers great bodily harm, and the harm was proximately caused by the labor trafficking conduct of the offender.

 

• Deep fake is audio or video of a person digitally altered so they are saying or doing something that in actuality did not happen. It is often done with a negative intent, such as spreading false information. This new law allows someone to sue somebody for intentionally disseminating a deep fake without the consent of the individual that depicts them engaging in a sexual act or depicts intimate parts of the individual.  If the deep fake relates to a candidate for office with the intent to influence an election, it will be considered a crime.  Internet service providers have immunity. 

 

STATE GOVERNMENT

Minnesota Human Rights Act now prohibits hair style discrimination, if the style is associated with race, including but not limited to hair texture and hair styles such as braids, locs, and twists.”

 

TRANSPORTATION

• Bicyclists won’t have to completely halt their progress at all stop signs 2023. “A bicycle operator who approaches a stop sign must slow to a speed that allows for stopping before entering the intersection or the nearest crosswalk.  If there is not a vehicle in the vicinity, the operator may make a turn or proceed through the intersection without stopping.”

 

• Institutes riding rules for a bicyclist on a road to ride as close to the right-hand curb or edge of the road as the bicyclist deems safe.

 

• a bicyclist can turn right from the left side of dedicated right hand turn lane

 

• Each school district must provide public school students in grades K-8 with age-appropriate active transportation safety training (Bikes, Pedestrians).

 

• A criminal penalty is created for obstructing an employee of the Driver and Vehicle Services Division, a deputy registrar, or a driver’s license agent in their performance of duties. The penalty ranges from a misdemeanor to a felony depending on the circumstances. Peace officers, firefighters, and ambulance crews are already covered by such a law.

 

• Further clarifying it is illegal to hold a cell phone while driving.

 

• Creation of a special permit type to allow for overweight and over-width transport of raw or unfinished forest products.

 

• Centralizing and creating new requirements for towing and recovery vehicle weight limits.

 

• Establishing eligibility for driver’s license reinstatement for individuals whose license was suspended for violations that, due to 2021 changes, are no longer grounds for suspension. The changes eliminated failure to pay fines and fees as a cause for driver’s license suspensions in non-criminal traffic infractions and ending the practice of charging multiple reinstatement fees for regaining a suspended driver’s license.

This month new firearms laws take effect in Minnesota.  I strongly opposed these changes because I believe restricting law-abiding gun owners is not only unconstitutional, but it does not reduce crimes committed with guns.  Failure to prosecute crimes committed with guns is a bigger reason for the rampant crime we are seeing in our cities.

• Permit to Purchase. If you are transferring the ownership of a pistol or “semiautomatic military-style assault weapon,” and you do not already have a permit to carry, you need to get a permit to purchase. Previously this only applied to the purchase of a gun.  You will need to get this permit from your local police department or your local sheriff if you do not have a police department in your jurisdiction. Another change: previously, a permit to purchase only took seven days to acquire. Now a PD or sheriff will have 30 days to issue or deny your permit.  Reasons you could be denied your permit to purchase include being a danger to yourself or the public or being on record as being in a gang.  You can appeal this finding within 20 days to your local court. However, you will not be entitled to your legal fees, as was the case in the past with successful challenges of denials of permit to carry.   

 

• Transfers.  People wanting to transfer, gift or even temporarily loan a pistol or a “semiautomatic military-style assault weapon”  will have to have a NICS check and fill out a form provided by the State Department of Public Safety. You must retain this paperwork for ten years and be able to produce it on demand for law enforcement if requested.  Another way to transfer guns is to go through a Federal Firearms Licensed Dealer, pay a fee, and they will be able to process the transfer. You will need to complete this paperwork even if you and the transferee have a permit to carry. Transfers between immediate family members are exempt from having to go through this formal transfer process.  (Parent-child, spouses, siblings only).  Also, temporary transfers where the owner and the person using the gun are both present, such as borrowing a gun at a gun range, do not require a formal transfer.

Some people have asked about potential legal challenges to these new laws.  The new laws are based on laws that have been upheld in other state courts and federal courts, so a direct challenge is unlikely to meet with success. However, the broad discretion that law enforcement has to deny a permit to purchase may create situations where people’s rights are infringed, and that could be the subject of a successful legal challenge.  Contact the MN Gun Owners Caucus for further information on legal challenges.  For more information on transferring firearms, see the BCA web page. You will also find there the statutory definition of a "semi-automatic military-style assault Weapon."

Another big change that happened on August 1 was the legalization of marijuana for recreational use.  There are many issues with the law, as many legislators know and as the public will soon find out.

This is what happens when one party controls the government and refuses to listen to any input or feedback – you get laws that are filled with problems and confusion. The cannabis law was poorly thought out, vaguely written, and will require a lot of fixes next year. Unfortunately, it will be left up to cities to establish order with local ordinances in the meantime because the Democrats who wrote the bill this year were of little help.”

There have been questions about where and when people can smoke marijuana. On an outdoor patio at a restaurant? Walking down the street on a public sidewalk? At a boat launch? Standing in their front yard?

Barring any local ordinances, the answer to those questions is yes. Consumption of marijuana on any public property is OK unless a city restricts it itself. Consumption on private property is ok and banned anywhere the Clean Indoor Air Act applies, just like cigarette smoking.

The question of marijuana legalization has come up several times in the past few years as other states have moved to decriminalize and legalize it.  We can already see some of the negative effects in those states, but for cynical, political reasons, the Democrats decided to rush it through.  Here’s a short list:

• Marijuana usage is legal, but selling it is not, not without licensure, which does not exist yet and won’t for some months. This means there is still the same danger to the public that selling illicit substances brings of whether the consumer knows what they are buying. 
• Employers are going to have to develop policies about employee use of a legal substance but may still be liable for their actions while impaired. 
• Worker productivity in Minnesota was already dropping like a rock, and this isn’t going to help.
• Law enforcement doesn’t have a way to measure levels of intoxication yet when they stop a driver for reckless driving.  Unlike alcohol impairment, someone high on THC doesn’t have to comply with testing or face automatic loss of driving privileges.
• There is the unknown human cost of suddenly legalizing a drug when post-covid levels of depression and mental illness are rampant, especially among youth.  The author of the bill intended to remove all penalties for underage marijuana use, although because there is no stated penalty, it will be up to a court to decide whether that intention or the “default penalty” of a petty misdemeanor applies.

 

But the Office of Cannabis Management website is up and running! Bureaucrats are being hired as we speak to staff it to collect license fees and tax money.

On August 3, I attended a picnic to mark the success of the North Zumbro Water Treatment Plant Project thus far.  Representatives from Goodhue, Pine Island, Wanamingo, Zumbrota and The Prairie Island Community have been meeting for almost 3 years to this point working to get the 5 community project underway.  This past session, I carried the bill in the senate to get funds to start up the project. More money will be needed, but it is good to know that the project can begin and that infrastructure funding is available to get it the rest of the way there, if the State continues to fund high priority projects like this one.  Communities working together ensure the future of clean water in the region and that none of the towns will have to carry the burden on their own.  

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is gathering ideas as the department considers proposals for the 2024 Minnesota legislative session. Farmers, food businesses, and others impacted by food and agriculture systems are invited to share policy and program suggestions.

The MDA is hosting two virtual public input sessions where people can share their ideas directly, in addition to an online form for written submissions open through September 1, 2023.

 

For more information go to their page. 

Please contact me to share any issues, concerns, or feedback you have to assist me in best representing you.  The best way to reach me is by email at [email protected] or by phone at 651-296-5612. My legislative assistant is Margaret Martin, and her number is 651-296-4264.  

Sincerely,

Steve Drazkowski

Minnesota Senate, District 20, Wabasha, Goodhue, Winona, Olmsted, and Dakota Counties.

2411 Minnesota Senate Building

95 University Avenue W.
Minnesota Senate Bldg.
St. Paul, MN 55155